Fitness bike with a gear shift unit for simulating the gear ratio of a bicycle

ABSTRACT

A fitness bike with a gear shift unit for simulating the gear ratio of a bicycle comprising a base, a saddle post, and a front support. At lease one gear shift unit is positioned on the handlebar. The gear shift unit has an acceleration button and a deceleration button. When one of these buttons is activated, a corresponding electronic signal will be transmitted to the electronic console. Meanwhile, the control software program built in the electronic console conducts the expected adjustment simulating the gear shift in riding a bicycle. In this way, the exercise resistance applied by the resistance supply unit to the inertia flywheel can be slightly adjusted.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Fields of the Invention

The invention relates to a fitness bike with a gear shift unit forsimulating the gear ratio of a bicycle, and more particularly, to afitness bike which can simulate the real state of bike riding in anuphill road (under a greater exercise resistance). The exerciseresistance can be slightly adjusted by activating theacceleration/deceleration button to meet the physical state of theoperator for a smooth continuous riding exercise.

2. Description of the Related Art

The so-called fitness bike relates to an indoor exercise apparatussimulating the riding effect of a usual bicycle. In other words, theoutdoor bicycle can be replaced by the in-place fitness bike when peoplecan't ride a bicycle outside. The conventional fitness bike is normallyprovided with a resistance unit which applies a proper exerciseresistance to an inertia flywheel. The resistance can be divided intomany resistance levels in order to simulate the gear shift of the actualbike for the flat, uphill or downhill environment.

It is common in the uphill road that the biker will operate on the gearshift unit mounted on the handle to adjust to his physical state. Thegear shift unit will move the gear chain mounted on the gear sprocketson the pedal shaft and/or on the rear wheel shaft to achieve a propertransmission gear ratio for overcoming the uphill road. The riding inthe uphill road can be called as exercise essence because it often makesfun for those who are willing to accept the challenge.

The conventional fitness bike has the resistance unit which appliesdifferent levels of exercise resistance to the inertia flywheel.However, the fitness bike can not produce the “true” feelings equal orsimilar to riding a bicycle. The reason for that lies in as follows. Theresistance levels created by the fitness bike correspond to thedifferent exercise resistance levels arising from the roads havingdifferent slopes. The greater resistance means the steeper slope. Whenthe user feels that he is not physically enough for the exercise, he canadjust the exercise resistance to a certain level to meet his physicalcapacity. The resistance adjustment is the same to the adjustment of theroad slope. However, there is no real road environment in which theslope can be changed as desired. Therefore, the conventional fitnessbike has never been able to provide a true feel of riding a bicycle. Ofcourse, the user can not truly experience the real essence and the funin riding the fitness bike.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the invention is to provide a fitness bike with a gearshift unit for simulating the gear ratio of a bicycle, wherein thefitness bike still retains the function of adjusting the resistancelevels (different slopes). Meanwhile, the fitness bike includes a gearshift unit 30 on the handlebar 14 for simulating the gear ratio of abicycle. In this way, the operator can experience the simulated gearratio mode to take the challenge of the load at a certain resistancelevel. At the same time, the control software program built in theelectronic console will record all the exercise performance data of theoperator and use them as a reference for the future training. Therefore,the bicycle-riding exercise can be fully simulated.

According to the invention, at lease one gear shift unit is positionedon the handlebar. The gear shift unit has an acceleration button and adeceleration button. When one of these buttons is activated, acorresponding electronic signal will be transmitted to the electronicconsole. Meanwhile, the control software program built in the electronicconsole conducts the expected adjustment simulating the gear shift inriding a bicycle. In this way, the exercise resistance applied by theresistance supply unit to the inertia flywheel can be slightly adjusted.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accomplishment of this and other objects of the invention willbecome apparent from the following description and its accompanyingdrawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the preferred embodiment of theinvention according to FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing of the electronic speed-adjusting unit ofthe invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The present invention will now be described in more detail hereinafterwith reference to the accompanying drawings that show variousembodiments of the invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a fitness bike 10 in accordance with anembodiment of the invention has a base 11, a saddle post 12, and a frontsupport 13. The front support 13 includes a handlebar 14 and anelectronic console 15. A control software program is built in theelectronic console 15 and used to control a resistance supply unit 20 insuch a way that the resistance supply unit 20 applies a certainresistance to an inertia flywheel 22. The saddle post 12 has a saddle 16on the top thereof. A pedal assembly 18 is provided on a lateral tube 17near the bottom of the saddle post 12. The pedal assembly 18 imparts arotation to a transmission sprocket 19. The inertia flywheel 22 ismounted on a rear support 21 near the tail of the base 11 and driven viaa transmission chain 23 mounted the transmission sprocket 19. Theresistance supply unit 20 is interposed between the base 11 and theinertia flywheel 22 for applying an exercise resistance to the inertiaflywheel 22.

At lease one gear shift unit 30 is positioned on the handlebar 14. Thegear shift unit 30 has an acceleration button 31 and a decelerationbutton 32. When one of these buttons is activated, a correspondingelectronic signal will be transmitted to the electronic console 15.Meanwhile, the control software program built in the electronic console15 conducts the expected adjustment simulating the gear shift in ridinga bicycle. In this way, the exercise resistance applied by theresistance supply unit 20 to the inertia flywheel 22 can be slightlyadjusted.

The control software program does not belong to the invention so that nofurther descriptions thereto are given hereinafter.

Actually, it is possible to choose the basic resistance level (or theslope level) through the control software program built in theelectronic console 15. When an operator chooses one of the resistancelevels (or the slope level) and walks thereon, he can slightly adjustthe exercise resistance to a proper level according to his actual needby pulling the acceleration button 31 or the deceleration button 32 ofthe gear shift unit 30. In brief, the control software program willcontrol the resistance supply unit 20 to slightly increase or decreasethe resistance acting on the inertia flywheel. The magnitude of thisslight increase or the slightly decrease of the resistance relies on thepreset value in the control software program. Thereafter, the controlsoftware program will record all the exercise performance data of theoperator and use them as a reference for the future training.

As shown in FIG. 3, the gear shift unit 30 can be replaced by anelectronic speed-adjusting unit 40. The electronic speed-adjusting unit40 also includes an acceleration key 41 and a deceleration key 42. Inthis way, the same effect can be achieved.

Many changes and modifications in the above-described embodiments of theinvention can, of course, be carried out without departing from thescope thereof. Accordingly, to promote the progress in science and theuseful arts, the invention is disclosed and is intended to be limitedonly by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A fitness bike with a gear shift unit forsimulating the gear ratio of a bicycle, the fitness bike comprising abase, a saddle post, and a front support, the front support having ahandlebar and an electronic console, a control software program beingbuilt in the electronic console to control a resistance supply unit insuch a way that the resistance supply unit applies a certain resistanceto an inertia flywheel, the saddle post having a saddle on the topthereof, a pedal assembly being provided on a lateral tube near thebottom of the saddle post, the pedal assembly imparting a rotation to atransmission sprocket, the inertia flywheel being mounted on a rearsupport near the tail of the base and driven via a transmission chainmounted the transmission sprocket, the resistance supply unit beinginterposed between the base 11 and the inertia flywheel for applying anexercise resistance to the inertia flywheel, wherein at lease one gearshift unit is positioned on the handlebar and includes an accelerationbutton and a deceleration button, and wherein, when one of these buttonsis activated, a corresponding electronic signal will be transmitted tothe electronic console; meanwhile, the control software program built inthe electronic console conducts the expected adjustment for simulatingthe gear shift in riding a bicycle so that the exercise resistanceapplied by the resistance supply unit to the inertia flywheel isslightly adjusted.
 2. The fitness bike with a gear shift unit forsimulating the gear ratio of a bicycle as recited in claim 1, whereinthe gear shift unit is replaced by an electronic speed-adjusting unit.